I Met R.L. Stine…and it was AWESOME!

February 27, 2018

Palm Beach Peril

Meeting R.L. Stine was like fulfilling a piece of my childhood. This author was the center of my world in my elementary school days! When I wasn’t reading Sweet Valley High or Baby-Sitters Club and I wanted to read something on the darker/spookier side Goosebumps was always my go to! And later on in my pre-teen years, Fear Street was everything! Those killer cheerleader stories were freaking CLASSIC! My original books from my childhood years are gone but I got a few of them back through used book stores and Amazon thankfully!

The event we attended on February 18th at 2 p.m. was an International Thriller Writer Conference in Palm Beach Library! R.L. Stine was moderating a group of up and coming mystery writers! All these authors had mystery novels coming out and they all brought something interesting and fresh to the table! I have most of their books on my TBR list after hearing their synopsis and I am excited to read most of them around the fall season of this year! One of the authors from the panel that I am currently reading at the moment is McManus’ book! I was so excited to meet the author Karen M. McManus mainly because the synopsis of her book sold me completely! The book is One of Us is Lying and this book is described as The Breakfast Club meets Gossip Girl with a dash of death! I don’t know about you but when I hear Breakfast Club and murder in the same sentence then it is put in my “must read right now bookshelf!” Oh, and not to mention…they are talking about making an E! series based on the actual book?! So now I am currently flying through the book before this series comes out!

We got to the panel about an hour earlier and snagged ourselves seats in the front row! We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of R.L. Stine! (Props to my husband on the right for driving us to this once in a lifetime event!)

In this picture, they are introducing Mr. Stine! I was filled with fangirl giddiness knowing that R.L. was in front of me!

If I could describe R.L. Stine in two words I would say that he is hilarious and humble! I was pleasantly surprised at how much he made fun of himself throughout the mystery panel! He started off with reading some letters from kids that have written to him throughout the years and they were quite endearing! One of the letters started off with, “Dear R.L. Stine…your my second favorite author!” Another one that was adorable and hysterical at the same time started off with, “Dear R.L. Stine…I have read 40 of your books and I hate all of them.”

There was also some awesome news! He announced that there will be a new Goosebumps movie and that they are in the works of creating a new possible Fear Street TV series!!! I almost fell out of my chair when I heard that!

Here is R.L. Stine interviewing the mystery authors!

Book Signing!

I was so freaking nervous meeting one of my ultimate childhood authors that the first picture was a fail because as you can see the book was UPSIDE DOWN! When I got to the table R.L. Stine’s wife instructed me to open up the books to the page where he will sign! (Btw I thought it was so adorable that his wife was there to help him with the signing! Can you say relationship goals?!)Immediately I started babbling to him about how much I love him and I don’t really know what the heck I really said because that’s how nervous I was! The only thing I remember is telling him that I am a first-grade teacher and I plan to read one of his recently published children’s books Mary McScary! He seemed interested and asked me about where I teach! After meeting him I felt like I was going to cry because he was so genuinely nice and adorable! I will never forget having the opportunity to meet him and it will be one of those book moments that I will always keep in my bookwormish heart!